Umuganda

So, at 8.15 this Saturday morning, I found myself with my kind of hoe-shovel thing and my workboots, covered in mud, working away shoulder to shoulder with my neighbours to dig a trench and widen a path close to my house. I think I’m actually quite good at manual labour, I don’t think anybody agrees with me though… So for anybody who isn’t living in Rwanda, I should explain about Umuganda. Every month on the last Saturday, everybody meets up to work on their local area. From what I can make out the work varies, they just do whatever needs to be done. It’s taken quite seriously, public transport doesn’t run on these mornings because you’re not supposed to leave your town, everybody is supposed to pitch in and when I was there a lady went around with a list of attendance. As foreigners, we can get away without doing it but I thought I should go at least once to see what happens.

I’m delighted with myself that I went. I attempted chatting to my new neighbours in very bad French and even worse Kinyarwanda. A lot of people laughed at me hoeing. Apparently I’m hilarious. I laughed a bit too, I also thought it was slightly surreal that I was there.  Children swung out of my plaits and rubbed my sunburnt arms. A few women took my hoe out of my hand to examine me for rough skin and blisters, shaking their heads. A man showed me the best way to hack into the grass and then use my hoe to kind of shovel the dirt off the path. Even though it was a kind of strange experience, and I probably wasn’t very useful, I felt like it was a good thing to take part in.

 When it was over we all sat on the ground while the leader of our umudugudu gave a speech. They LOVE speeches here. I sat on the ground for about two hours getting sunburned and listen to Kinyarwanda, the only word I understood was ‘muzungu’, said in a sentence with emphasis and dramatic gestures in my direction. He sounded really angry, I imagined he was saying something along the lines of ‘the muzungu is crap at digging’ but I was told afterwards that he was saying he was happy that I was there, I’m an example!

So in other news this week, I had my first day in my work, we went to the office and then had an unplanned drive up to one of the sectors we’ll be working in. This entailed a few hours drive through beautiful mountains, a near death experience where I really thought we were going to go backwards over the side of a mountain, and a marathon singalong with Tricia, Ann, and a lot of children.  I also shadowed Julia at work and got to see a few schools in her district. We don’t realise how lucky we are in our schools in Ireland. I sat in on a Chemistry lesson with 89 students. 89! I got to read the Gruffalo, my favourite story, to a class outdoors under a tree. That school was in a remote area and I don’t think they see many white people, I’d been warned about the swarming but it’s really weird when you have loads of little hands coming at you to feel your arms and your hair.  But anyway after my introduction to the schools I can’t wait to start working in my own district!

Two other brilliant things happened this week. I got hot water in my house!!!!!!!! There are no words for how much this pleases me! And also I had my fist trip to the local gym. It’s very different to the one at home. Also I made the mistake of turning up early, by myself, so I was ‘helped’ around all the different equipment before the class started.  But still, jumping around to music looking silly is the same in any language, and it was so much fun! Sarah – over here ‘super’ is just ‘Hey!’ 

Oh and I had a little trip to Kigali. I got the bus in and stayed in the VSO dorm with Julia, Rose, Pauline and Christine. It felt like a little holiday! We went to the cinema in Nyamarambo, and then today the sun was shining, we ate lovely food and then, for something to do, we went to a very strange karaoke mass. Despite the singing and clapping, I can cross Anglican off the list of religions I might convert to. There was an awkward moment when they made us stand up and introduce ourselves, then they sang at us and blessed us. And the best song was the one where all the little kids got up on the stage and sang ‘Satan is a loser man’!

 And then the last little weird thing was the man who sat down the back of the bus with us, with his arm around Pauline for the whole journey. No reason, he didn’t talk to us or anything, he just was comfortable like that.

So, it’s late and I have to get up at a ridiculous hour tomorrow. I should get my beauty sleep. Night night!